All Four Legs Even

I just finished cutting all four legs even to lengths. My sawing is getting better, but I still had to work the ends with a plane to get them square. Regardless, they are right on the money now and I’m ready to lay out the tenons to fit into the top.

A couple of interesting bits.

First, I hate the “Craftsman” bench I’m using. It’s totally lame. The tiny little bolts that (more or less) hold it together keep loosening up and falling out. It was wobbling so much that I dropped a plane and a saw on the ground. It made me swear link a sailor.

Second, I’m not happy with my diamond sharpening system. I have the 8000 grit “stone”, but it doesn’t seem to polish the micro bevel at all. I even tried the back on the off chance I was using the wrong side. Fail. I went back to sandpaper for the micro bevel and have sharp blades again. I ordered some Shapton glass stones, hopefully that will work better for me.

I’ve always been leery of using a strop on a flat plane or chisel blade, at least for anything more than to remove the tiniest wire edge (burr). It’s too easy to start rounding over the flat surface. But the bigger problem was that the 8000 grit diamond plate didn’t remove the scratches from the next lower plate (much less polish the edge). It was like rubbing it on a piece of smooth steel, it would burnish it, but not actually abrade/polish it.

I do use a strop on my carving tools.

The sandpaper approach works pretty well (I’ve been using the stuff from toolsforworkingwood.com), but it wears out too quickly for my tastes. I get a couple of sharpenings from a sheet and then it’s used up.

Once i got a translucent Arkansas stone from Tools for Working wood, my whole sharpening regime changed. I have some inexpensive India stones, and the translucent Arkansas and strop for my carving tools. It’s quick, and easy to maintain. I hated hated hated!! sharpening before this.

I do a quick pass on the medium every so often to shape the flat, and freehand on the translucent stone.

I really didn’t want to obsess over the sharpening part, and this works for me. Plus less mess than water stones. It’s a matter of what works for you though, I like my setup, it’s a bit worse than religion when it comes to sharpening.